If you’re looking for tax places near me, you’re probably getting ready for tax season. So before you hire a local mom and pop shop and hand over your shoebox of receipts, there are a few things you need to know.
We can’t stress this enough: precise accounting is crucial to the health and continued success of your business. There’s a reason why specialists choose to get educated and gain experience in this profession. Both of which are crucial to your business because errors can have both a monetary impact now and in the future.
This one almost goes without saying, but it’s so important. Anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a tax preparer. You may even have driven by some of these tax places near me on your way home. But how do you know? Ask them for credentials. How many years have they been in the business? What’s the most challenging technical situation they’ve resolved? Without divulging client confidentiality, any reputable tax preparer will remember an issue that required unprecedented research and resolution on their part. Do they have a professional looking website? Have they invested in both the infrastructure and the technology to support their business? They may seem trivial, but these can all point to trustworthiness.
As you’re searching for tax places near me, look for someone you can trust. Someone you’ll want to stick with, because a reputable tax advisor is someone who will always be thinking of your entire financial picture. You want someone that will go out of their way to save you money now, and also help you build wealth over time. Are they friendly and courteous, as well as experienced technically? Don’t underestimate the patience factor either – as you get closer to a tax deadline, their workload inherently becomes more stressful. As you look for an income tax office near me, you’ll want to take these personality factors into account.
Do they have a streamlined process for handing over your information? What kind of record practices do they employ while preparing your return? Anything you can do to clean up your records and make the information stream-lined and easy to follow, the better, because you never know when a random tax audit will come to call. If you’re feeling flustered or overwhelmed with your own record keeping practices, a good tax preparer will also point out any simple adjustments you can make to keep yourself from repeating the same mistakes year after year.
Tax preparation services include more than just crunching numbers on a spreadsheet and dropping them into a form. Effective tax companies hire individuals that can synthesize large amounts of information quickly. Great tax preparers can efficiently develop a deep understanding of your business. They also must have strong communication skills in order to effectively ask the right questions and gather the necessary information, as well as be able to apply the correct tax rules and regulations to the data received.
Most tax places near me offer straight tax preparation services. But don’t start the hiring process until you have a good understanding of the specific accounting needs for your business. Reason being that, a few months from now, you may decide that it’s time to finally get more strategic with where you’re investing your money, and not all tax places near me have the experience or skills necessary to advise you in a way that will (1) help make you more money quicker and (2) reduce the amount you pay in taxes.
As one of the really good tax places near me, The Clem Collaborative offers more than just trustworthy team members and a client portal that makes providing information super easy. We focus on long-term wealth building opportunities, and ways you can reduce taxes and enjoy more of your money today.
In addition to tax preparation, we handle tax planning, financial planning, and money coaching. Because even if you’ve done your very best with reporting your income and planning for a rainy day, with self-sabotaging beliefs about money, you’ll always going to feel behind. We really do want to help you heal your relationship with money and see you achieve your financial dreams.
If you’d like support in making next year’s process smooth and streamlined, contact us and let us know. Within one conversation, you’ll know if we’re right for you and have the clarity you need to make your next right action.